How To Setup Amazon Web Service (AWS) ECS?
Last Updated :
23 Jul, 2025
Amazon ECS is a popular Cloud Computing service that is used for more efficient cloud-based container management. Amazon ECS makes it easier to build apps without being limited by physical hardware resources. In this article, we will guide you through setting up and running the ECS service and show you how it takes advantage of scalability and efficiency.
What Is Amazon ECS?
Amazon Elastic Container Service ( Amazon ECS ) is a cloud-based container orchestration service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It facilitates in simplifying the deployment and management of containerized applications. It allows users to seamlessly run and scale their applications without having any complexities of traditional infrastructure.
ECS comes up with supporting Docker containers facilitating an efficient and flexible utilization of computing resources in the AWS cloud. This ECS service allows the users to focus completely on developing and running applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. It makes containerized application deployment a seamless and scalable experience.
How To Setup Amazon ECS?
Setting up the Amazon ECS is a optimized process for improving the user's efficiency in managing the containers in the cloud. It acts as a main component in AWS facilitating the deployment of applications without having complex physical infrastructure. AWS will manages availability of underlying infrastructure making the user's management easy. The following section guides you in setting up of Amazon ECS.
How Do I Step Up ECS On AWS : A Step-By-Step Guide
Step 1: Login In To AWS Account
- Firstly navigate to AWS console login and login into their AWS account with your credentials.
- Search for the ECS in the search Box from the home page.
- Then click on Amazon ECS service to redirect to that service page.

Step 2: Create A Cluster
- After landing on Amazon ECS service, You can see two options as shown in the screenshot.
- Among those buttons, Click on the Get Started Button.

Step 3: Select Container Type
- Now you will find different types of containers presenting here.
- Click on the Sample-App container category & the next window will be processed automatically.

Step 4: Configuring Task Definition
- Now, the Task Definition window will open. The default name will already be provided there.
- Users can rename the default name by clicking on the Edit option in the corner. But users should only make changes to the Name field.
- All other information should be complete and present there. Otherwise, It will raise some errors while creating Amazon ECS.
- After reviewing it click on the Next button.

Step 5: Define Service Parameters
- In the next window, users will get the fields for defining the Service. There will be the default name of the service present.
- If needed, users can change the default name by clicking on the Edit button. But users should not make any changes to the other fields.
- After that, users click on the Next button & move ahead.

Step 6: Name Your Cluster
- At the end, users have to provide the name of the Cluster.
- After providing the name, click on the Next button to finish the task.

Step 7: Wait For Completion
- The process of completion will take some time. You need to wait till the process is completed.

Step 8: Verifying Cluster Creation
- After completion of the process, it will redirect the Cluster Home page from where the journey started.
- Users will find their newly created ECS cluster is now present.

Hence, we have successfully set up the ECS cluster in Amazon Web Service.
AWS ECS CLI Commands
AWS ECS CLI facilitates in streamlining the ECS Cluster Management. It helps the users to deploy, scale and monitoring the containerized applications efficiently. The commands with arguments such as 'up' for resource provisioning and 'logs' helps in real time log retrivalling. ECS CLI simplifies the docker container orchestration on AWS ECS with integrating with Docker Compose enhances in seamless deployment of multi-container applications. AWS ECS CLI helps in offering convenient development experience. The following are some of the common needed ECS CLI commands with effective explaination.
- ecs-cli configure profile:
This command is useful in creating and updating the profiles of ECS CLI. This profiles store the configuration settings such as AWS access key, secret key and default region.
Example
ecs-cli configure profile --profile-name myprofile --access-key <access-key> --secret-key <secret-key> --region <region>
It useful for creating and updating the ECS Resources that are defined in the ECS CLI Project. This command provisions the ECS clusters, services and the task definitions based on the configuration specified in the ECS CLI Project.
Example
ecs-cli up --capability-iam --keypair <keypair-name>
It used in creating and updating ECS services and task definitions specially for the projects that uses the Docker Compose files.
Example
ecs-cli compose up
It lists the ECS container instances that are running in the specified ECS Cluster. It facilitates with providing the information like Instance ID, ARN, status and running tasks.
Example
ecs-cli ps --cluster mycluster
This command helps in listing the ECS services that are running in the specified ECS cluster. It facilitates with showing the details such as service name, desired count, running count and deployment status.
Example
ecs-cli service list --cluster mycluster
This command helps in retrieving the logs from the specified ECS cluster for a particular service. It supports in streaming the logs in real-time or fetching logs for a specific range of time.
Example
ecs-cli logs --task-id <task-id> --follow
- ecs-cli compose service scale
This commands helps in scaling the number of containers (tasks) associated with a particular service that defines the Docker compose file.
Example
ecs-cli compose service scale 3
- ecs-cli compose service ps
This command helps in listing the tasks that are associated wit the defined service in the Docker compose file. It supports with show casing the details such as task ID, health status and running containers with task.
Example
ecs-cli compose service ps
This command helps in deleting the ECS resources that are provisioned by the ECS CLI project. It removes the ECS clusters, services task definitions and other related resources.
Example
ecs-cli down --force
- ecs-cli configure logging
This command helps in configuring the logging for the ECS CLI. It faciliates in specifying the logging options such as log driver and options for logging behaviour.
Example
ecs-cli configure logging --log-driver awslogs --region <region> --awslogs-group <log-group-name>
Conclusion
In conclusion, In this article we went on discussing the utilization of Amazon ECS it container orchestration service functionality. we guided on setting up Amazon ECS effectively detailing about step by step. ECS helps users in streamlining their application's deployment and maintenance seamlessly. Try on implementing the setup and deploying your applications in Amazon ECS for better understanding. Happy Containerizing!
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